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iSchool, a student led non-profit initiative, inspiring students to go bookless and paperless. These digital natives plan to bring together business and education to create a sustainable eco-system for mobile learners.

Cable companies, as part of a new FCC initiative, will be offering broadband internet to homes with children who are elgible for free school lunches.  The initiative is called "Connect-to-Compete". While having broadband at the home isn't the same as always on, mobile internet available wirelessly for students wherever they are on any device they happen to have on them, this is a good start to lessen digital exclusion for these groups

Here is the link to the archived version of the SIIA webinar I posted about a few days ago: "The Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI) is working to create a standard metadata framework for tagging educational resources on the web to enhance search, discovery and delivery of educational content. The project is funded by the Gates and Hewlett Foundations, administered through AEP and Creative Commons, and builds on the broader Schema.org project by leading search engines Bing, Google, and Yahoo! This webinar provides an overview of the LRMI goals and deliverables, an update on progress and timelines, a look at the technical specifications, and a discussion of its implementation and impact with a focus on content publishers, aggregators and other digital learning providers."

Youth at Risk makes the sobering point in its findings that 'ICT driven initiatives targeting YAR are taking place but there is little systematic and in-depth information about them. Knowledge sharing and collaboration among stakeholders involved in YAR is still too limited (p. 29)'. Further, Youth at Risk states, 'There is evidence that ICT-driven initiatives can foster the reengagement of YAR in a variety of dimensions (education, vocational training, job searching, social engagement) by using ICT in their back-office activities and in their interaction with YAR (p. 29)'.

Lots of pomp and circumstance about new initiatives -- but how much funding and political clout is really behind them.

Are you speaking of Digital Promise? It reminds me of whatworks.ed.gov but it looks like it might be designed better. I don't believe whatworks.ed.gov ever got much traction.

It will be interesting to see the specific initiatives that come out of this new "Harvard wide" initiative.  I wonder if anyone at HGSE is involved with the planning and application of best practices

A few months ago, EDUCAUSE sponsored a "short course" on evaluating the effectiveness of mobile learning initiatives. This page contains a wealth of resources on mobile learning related to the course. Especially useful for classmates working on EDC term projects related to mobile learning!

Pretty relevant to what we've discussed in class so far--Verizon is launching a couple of initiatives to encourage mobile ed tech development. One is to encourage students to create educational apps relevant to their communities, while the other is to train teachers on how to use technology and mobile tech in their classrooms. Third part is an online portal for sharing knowledge and materials between teachers.

Some interesting PBS initiatives in schools. They also have some good stats on teachers and technology (not sure how much is reflected in the infographic I posted earlier).

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Next Generation Learning Challenges, a collaborative, multi-year initiative, which aims to help dramatically improve college readiness and college completion in the United States through the use of technology.

In 2006 - The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (the folks that seem to sponsor everything on PBS and NPR) launched its 5 year initiative to explore how youth are engaged in digital media.

In 2006 - The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (the folks that seem to sponsor everything on PBS and NPR) launched its 5 year initiative to explore how youth are engaged in digital media.

A U.S Department of Education initiative to review what initiatives really work in education. The link directs to the Education Technology section. Directly quoting from their website: "Our goal is to provide educators with the information they need to make evidence-based decisions". I personally had contradictory reactions about this initiative. What do you think?

On Monday, February 27, 2012, SIGTE is presenting a free webinar with Dr. Penelope Swenson discussing her use of iPad's with pre-service teachers. The basis of the discussion is a presentation by Dr. Swenson last Spring, entitled, "iPad-the Third Hand," asking a rather global question, will a select group of pre-service teachers incorporate the iPad into their lives, hearts, studying, and, eventually, teaching?

Using mobile technology as a tool for financial support... could this be geared toward education? (Has it been?)

Fantastically simple interface! It doesn't appear as though any funding is going to education, but more to households. But if this takes off, it would be great if the leaders of this non-profit lead school building initiatives, or other types of education initiatives.

Some key training initiatives in cyber security, big data, analytics, mobile, etc. IBM's recent report "found that only 1 in 10 organizations has the skills needed to effectively apply advanced technologies such as business analytics, mobile computing, cloud computing and social business."

Very interesting resource about the importance of trust within implementation of educational initiatives.

This article is not about emerging tech directly. However, it discusses how there is an initiative to increase teaching students to be innovators consistent with 21st century learning. When I read this, I thought about all the ways that technology could facilitate this.

A new proposal calls for a Consumer Reports-like rating body to evaluate new digital learning tools. Ed tech innovators like the idea in theory but they worry that it won't work in practice.

Funny, I was just talking with someone about this very idea the other day. We absolutely need something like this and my guess is that we will have a few competitors, at least early on, for the top ed tech review site. I think there is space for both an organization that specializes and for a yelp like site that essentially crowd sources the reviews. It will be tough to keep up, but think of how many products and areas Consumer Reports deals with- we can do this, and need to do this, for ed tech to get used wisely in our schools.

With regards to e-learning, I think inevitably some company or organization will provide ratings of the quality of online degree programs and learning tools. Whether this is Consumer Reports or US World & News Report or some new player (investment opportunity?), the need for objective assessments of digital learning tools is definitely needed. The Benchmarking e-learning wiki is interesting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benchmarking_e-learning

Kind of a slightly different perspective from Europe, but some commentary from Microsoft Europe on how they think technology will change higher education and job preparedness. Towards the end he talks about things like personalization, digital resources for all schools, and some MS initiatives in schools (Partners in Learning).

Related to our design exercise from section this week--check out what new blended learning models caught the eye of the Gates Foundation. "Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC), an initiative dedicated to improving college readiness and completion, today announced grants totaling $5.4 million for 13 new models of personalized, blended learning at the secondary and postsecondary levels."